Rei Suzuki
Rei Suzuki D. O. B: 'February 21st, 1994 '''Gender: '''Female '''Marital Status: '''Single. '''Last Known Location: 'Tokyo, Japan 'Occupation: '''Lead Vocals & Rhythm Guitar for Readysteady [POW!?] '''Power (If DNA Alternate): 'Electromagnetic Field Manipulation & Enhanced Bioelectromagnetism Personality Rei Suzuki is a very curious case. Appearances would tell you that she is very much the young Japanese 'idol' that the magazines would have you believe. Pretty, charismatic, with killer looks and a taste for fashion, she appears to be the poster girl for teen rock groups in her native Tokyo. However, there is much more behind the scenes than what first meets the eye. Rei's social interactions with others has been irrevocably shaped by the circumstances of her birth. When her mother was murdered whilst she was still inside the womb, Rei barely survived. She was rescued by the quick and fortuitous action of attending doctors on the scene, being removed from the womb much earlier than she should have been. Miraculously she escaped with no lasting effects, or at least, none that the doctors were aware of at the time. As it turned out, though, Rei was not entirely without defect thanks to her forced, premature birth. Head trauma caused during her removal from her mothers womb resulted in bilateral amygdala damage. The bilateral amygdala is one of the most important areas of the brain for emotional interaction. In Rei's case, the damage was minor, but has resulted in a significant aspect of her personality: she has an extremely diminished capability to feel fear. The focal bilateral amygdala lesions that she sustained have essentially stopped the induction and experience of fearful emotion. Whilst she is not entirely unable to comprehend the emotion of fear, it has very little real effect upon her state of mind. Whilst there are many boons to being without fear, there are just as many negatives. Throughout her childhood, Rei was always getting into all sorts of trouble. She approached wild animals and insects without the slightest reprehension, picked fights with bullies much larger and stronger than herself, and would often climb trees and other heights without any concern for her own safety. This made raising her a nightmare for her parents, and she frequently wound up with bruises, scrapes, and even serious injuries at times. As she matured she was able to learn that there were certain things in life that she should be afraid of, and that just because she didn't feel the emotion didn't mean she shouldn't avoid such things at all costs. Her fearlessness is perhaps one of the most defining qualities of her personality. She is very much outspoken and unafraid of voicing her opinions to others. She feels absolutely no intimidation in social situations and her somewhat brazen attitude towards others can at times be off putting. Given that there are at times very real reasons for why human beings feel fear in certain situations, it's not particularly surprising that Rei's behaviour is seen by others at times as bordering on insane. She has become something of a thrill seeker, taking risks that others wouldn't even dream of, all in a quest to try and find something that would make her truly feel afraid for the first time. Of course, being without fear is not the only aspect of her personality. Rei would always have been a wild child with or without being able to feel fear. Perhaps the lack of this one particular emotion has strengthened her others, but the young musician tends to live for the moment, and goes through life relishing one new experience after the next. She is very loyal to her band mates even if they think she's a psycho from time to time, and she genuinely cares for their well being. She's also somewhat of the anti thesis of the common pop star. Rei actually gives a damn about her fans and devotes an hour out of each day to answer fan mail. She usually has her smartphone on hand to keep people updated on her twitter, too. Greeting each day with a dauntless smile and cheery enthusiasm, Rei is just as devoted to her music as she is to her thrill seeking. She picked up the guitar at a very early age and has been in love with the instrument ever since, although she's known more for her vocal talent. Intelligent and creative, she writes all of the lyrics for her bands songs as well as the actual chord progressions at times, although this is mostly done by the band's lead guitarist, Izumi. Although Rei feels emotional attachments to those close to her, to some extent she feels a certain apathy towards those with no connection to her. She tends to place her own interests and those of her friends over the needs of strangers. She could be accused of selfishness in this regard. The youthful exuberance that she shows to the outside world also somewhat conceals the workings of her mind. She has been haunted since the day she was born by the deaths of her parents and the mysterious disappearance of her sister, Nami. Unbeknownst to her, Nami is very much alive, and now lives under the name Ayame Sato in New York City. Not knowing this, Rei has made it her mission in life to one day find her big sister, and to get to the bottom of how her parents died. Such things have mostly been forced to take a backseat to her musical career, however. The rigours of being a Japanese teen idol can be exhausting! History '''Family Relations: *Ken Suzuki - adoptive father. *Mayumi Suzuki - adoptive mother. *Izumi Suzuki - adoptive sister, bandmate, lead guitarist. *Ayame Sato / Nami Ono - birth sister. *Kage Ono - birth father, deceased. *Rei Ono - birth mother, deceased. 'Other Significant People:' *Keiko Mitsuragi - bandmate, drummer. *Rina Akatsuka - bandmate, bassist. 'Story To Date:' Rei was born on February 21st, 1994 several weeks premature when she was miraculously salvaged from the dead body of her mother. A birth very much in distress, the very fact that she managed to survive and grow up healthy in the aftermath was something of a medical marvel in itself. Her birth name was originally to be Haruno, a name that her mother had decided on long before she was born, but she would never get to bear the name. With no family capable of taking her in, the baby Rei was put up for adoption, where she was taken in by the Suzuki family. It was the Suzuki's who would give Rei the name that she came to be known by. A name that, unbeknownst to them, and to Rei herself, was shared by her recently deceased mother. Her parents had been killed by the Yakuza in a vicious and bloody attack that had left her older birth sister traumatised. Nami Ono, who would later become known as Ayame Sato, could only have assumed that her unborn sister had died along with her mother. Such was not to be the case, however. Aside from significant head trauma that Rei appeared to heal from without any adverse effects, she was given the best care that medicine at the time could provide. Her adoptive parents were thankfully wealthy enough to cover it, and she was quickly embraced into the family, forming a very strong, sisterly bond with Izumi, her older sister. As she began to grow older though, the rather peculiar nature of Rei's personality began to start displaying itself. As a baby, she was very seldom known to cry. Many children often displayed sadness out of fear when they weren't being paid attention to, but Rei was perhaps the most quiet child you could ever lay eyes on. That isn't to say she didn't give her new parents a hard time, mind you. She seemed to have a boundless energy, waking up at strange hours of the night, trying to escape her cot, climbing onto things she shouldn't have been climbing onto.. scolding her didn't seem to work, either. She was defiant, and her new mother and father were a little too soft hearted to ever consider physical discipline.. which only seemed to encourage her more. When she started getting bigger and becoming more bold, her adventurous, rebellious nature threatening to get out of control, the Suzuki's finally decided to take Rei to a psychologist. After a year of diagnostic therapy, the conclusion was finally drawn that Rei simply did not feel fear like an ordinary person. Whilst it was still possible for her to comprehend the prospect of fear, she simply didn't feel it. This revelation would change Rei's life forever. Knowing that she could do things without ever worrying or being afraid put the industrious young child into the rather unusual position of knowing she could more or less get away with anything. After all, threatening a child with punishments is the only real defence mechanism that most parents have.. and when your child isn't afraid of you, that makes them nearly impossible to control! Thankfully, despite her inability to feel fear, Rei also proved herself to be fairly intelligent. She avoided doing things that would be paramount to suicide simply because she quickly learned that it was stupid. Climbing a tree was one thing, jumping off a cliff into a bunch of spiky rocks below was something else entirely. During her childhood she also found herself developing quite a sweet tooth. Despite filling herself on a regular basis with sweet foods, she never seemed to gain much weight. When she was around eight years old, her adopted mother came to wake her one morning and almost got herself seriously electrocuted whenever she made contact with Rei's pillow. This was the first true sign that Rei was different. Special. But Rei was not the only member of the Suzuki family to have an ability. As it turned out, so did her adoptive sister Izumi, and her father, Kage. Whilst her father and his biological daughter shared the same abilities, Rei found herself being very much the odd one out. They seemed to be able to pick up and use their own, fairly simplistic abilities with ease, whereas she found her own power to be.. frustrating, at best. At first she thought it was useless. All it tended to do was frizz her hair whilst she slept and occasionally cause the television to break down. As she began to grow older, though, her expanding mind started to realise the possibilities. If nothing else, she was determined to outshine both of her adoptive relatives by coming to master her ability. It's amazing what a child can do with the right motivation, a creative mind, an industrious work ethic, and a complete disregard for her own safety. Entering into her teenage years, Rei would regularly head off after school, finding herself almost drawn to a huge power station that provided electricity to the entire prefecture. It was at this power station that Rei began to understand what she was truly capable of when she accidentally absorbed the electrical field created by the stations main generator into her own and send huge discharges of lightning blasting off into the sky. As time went by, her life seemed to move along two separate paths. By day she was a high school student, going about the usual rigours of the Japanese high school experience. Her inability to feel fear had made her somewhat of a wild child during her school years. Everything that someone told her not to do, she usually wound up doing. Japanese teachers are feared worldwide for being strict disciplinarians, but Rei couldn't have cared less. No matter how much they shouted at her, no matter how intimidating the stare.. she just grinned back at them. This characteristic of her personality gave her something of a natural charisma. All but the most saintly of kids in the school wanted to know more about the girl who pulled the principal's pants down in the midst of assembly. All things considered, it was a miracle that she wasn't expelled from the school several times over. It was likely thanks to her medical records. Rei had been classified as having an 'anti-social personality disorder', given that, technically speaking, her inability to feel fear made her a sociopath. A very selective sociopath, but a sociopath nonetheless. Rei never chose to view the void in her life filled by fear as a weakness, though. She progressed through life with brazen confidence, never looking back or regretting a thing. She quickly came to believe that life was for living, not for worrying. During her high school years, she began to pick up some of the Suzuki family's talent for music. Her adoptive father and sister were both extremely skilled with the guitar and, given their sound-related abilities, it was something of a natural fit that they both enjoyed music. Rei had always enjoyed listening to them, but it was only once she entered her 'rebellious phase' during high school that she started to think that maybe rock & roll could be cool. So, she took to learning the guitar from Izumi, and found herself to be pretty darn good. What was really impressive, though, was her voice. It turned out that when she wasn't staring down teachers and nearly getting herself expelled, Rei was a damn good singer. Izumi by this point had formed her own band named Readysteady [ POW! ] which was quickly starting to gain some traction in the Tokyo music scene. Rei was essentially their biggest fan, regularly attending their practice sessions and going to their shows. Due to her age gap and her somewhat late entry into music herself, she never thought of asking to join. Besides, the band already had a singer. That is.. until they didn't. After playing a show, a psychotic fan attacked the singer, Megumi Takahashi, attempting to slash her face with a knife. Whilst the attacker missed her mark, she did wind up slashing the poor girl's vocal chords. The doctors were able to repair the damage for the most part, but it was obvious that Megumi would never sing again. Enter Rei. Her natural talent for singing was obvious, and her charisma and bold attitude was exactly what the record label were looking for. Izumi was certainly willing to vouch for her younger sister, and the rest of the band were already very familiar with her. Joining up with the band when she was 17, they've been making kick ass music ever since, with their debut mainstream album becoming a best seller in Japan and even receiving limited airplay in the United States and Great Britain. After receiving a letter along with her fanmail claiming to be her long lost sister, Rei was more eager than ever to go on tour to the US, a goal that seemed originally due to be realised as the band prepared to play a show in New York City and embark on a nation-wide tour to really hit the big time in the Unitd States. However, this didn't go according to plan. During their flight to the US, Rei and Izumi were abducted by the rogue special group, Nemesis. Izumi was held captive as a prisoner whilst Rei was forced to act as a mobile electromagnetic pulse in exchange for her sister's continued safety. After unleashing powerful electromagnetic pulses in both San Francisco and Zurich, Rei managed to successfully arrange for her sister's escape from captivity. Once she learned that Izumi was free, Rei herself sought to escape, however she was tracked down in New York by a Nemesis hit squad. Although outnumbered four to one, Rei succesfully managed to defeat her pursuers and hoped to escape the net cast over her by her one-time captors. As she attempted to make good on her escape, though, an unseen fifth member of the hit squad attempted to kill her through the use of a sniper rifle. Rei was successful in repelling the bullet just in time, but not before some of the impact got through. Enough to cause temporary brain damage that knocked her unconscious and scrambled her memories, leaving her amnesiac for a year. Thanks to the successful interventions of a telepathic therapist, Rei has regained her memories and now seeks to reclaim her life. It didn't take her too long to meet up with Keiko and Izumi once more, and together the three girls played a come back show to announce their presence to the world. They hope now that their old friend and bassist Rina will rejoin them so that Readysteady POW!? can be a whole once more. On a personal note, however, Rei has her mind on things much larger than the band. Nemesis have themselves a date with the goddess of thunder, and she is not best pleased.. Miscellaneous 'Theme Songs:' *Thunderstruck by AC/DC *Ride the Lightning by Metallica *The Shock of the Lightning by Oasis *Shunkan Sentimental by SCANDAL Readysteady POW!? *Headstrong by Trapt *Masterpiece by Mami Kawada *Only My Railgun by fripSide *No Buts! by Mami Kawada 'Trackers': *Rei's Character Tracker Category:Original Characters (DNA Alternates) Category:Liberators